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LET’S COMMERCIALISE FOOTBALL

25/09/2018 08:52:00 BY Lwazi's Pandora's Boxs

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I wanna be there when the people start to turn it around
When they triumph over poverty
I wanna be there when the people win the battle against AIDS
I wanna lend a hand
I wanna be there for the alcoholic
I wanna be there for the drug addict
I wanna be there for the victims of violence and abuse
I wanna lend a hand
Send me
[Chorus]
Thuma mina (thuma m’na)
Thuma mina (ezizweni)
Ndizoya ndithandaze

My dearest readers ... This opening line of the lyrics of the dearly departed Hugh Masekela’s ‘Send me’ chart-buster from his album, ‘Time’ no doubt inspired this grandson of Mlonyeni’s State-of-Nation-Sports-Address (SONSA) this Tuesday morning in the advent of an artistic revolution (not the ongoing turmoil on the political sphere) currently sweeping across our football landscape.

This song, one of my favourites from the late ‘father of South African jazz’, holds a deeper meaning in as far as the game of the billions is concerned. Granted, I have been accused of worse things – an angst-ridden armchair critic – and indeed, I am hard-to-please. Even might be lacking in intellectual humility but I am saying, like South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in his first State Of the Nation Address (SONA), send me to pass on the message that we are capable of breaking the economic chains of our football and steamroll towards the land of honey and milk of professionalism.

We have to pay tribute to the forebearers who planted this seed of our football emancipation from the yoke of under-development, under-estimation and generally, the treatment with disdain. The forebearers who, inspite of a lot of resistance from some quarters, formed the Premier League of Eswatini, which today boasts of at least E40 million in sponsorships under their watch. These are the self-made men in the likes of Seedwell Lukhele, Moses Motsa, Henry ‘Tum’ Du-Pont, Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze, Charles ‘Ace’ Jele, Henry ‘Shushu’ Mthethwa, Celani Shongwe, Martin ‘Internash’ Dlamini, Dumisani Gumede, Faria Samuels, Veli Dlamini, Malume Du Pont, Desmond Oswin to mention but a few.

These self-made men bought into the idea of the team owners taking charge of their own product. Of course, one man needs special mention in Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze for taking the organisation to the next level. Now he has gone to a better place, not inhabited by the scumbags who betrayed him, and the journey must continue to commercialise the sport. The potential is huge. Whether we have the right people now to take us forward is debatable but all I am saying is that those people in leadership today need our outmost support. We cannot back down or walk the downtrodden path again.

That’s why, for starters, we need to congratulate the current Chairman, Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula and his Executive Committee for taking the initiative to introduce the pre-sale ticket system. Of course it is frustrating to our fans who are not used to such a set-up and indeed, it still has some glitches where some of the selling points turn people away because there are no tickets available or the equipment is malfunctioning. We still have a long way to go. But for a start, this is commendable because it is an open secret that teams were losing a lot of money from the gate collections at the stadium. Some people we know have been making a killing.

Under this new pre-sale ticketing system, at least there will be a lot of accountability. Methinks the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE), for a start and as a pilot project, should reserve the pre-sale for the big games, preferably the Y’ello Sundays, semi-finals and finals of the big tournaments. They can still sell the tickets around the stadiums for the Category B and C games. For the Category A games, then they can do the pre-sale and clearly define the areas where the tickets are being sold.
This is a good concept but of course we are still taking baby-steps – there is room for improvement. In many ways, this is also good for the sponsors like Eswatini MTN who can use their platform like Mobile Money for the fans to use in buying the tickets. Football should also be seen to be advancing the interests of the sponsor as well. This is a symbiotic relationship.

In the quest to commercialise the game, we also need to embrace other role players in the industry and not stifle competition. It will be counter-productive for football to give some sponsors carte-blanche to dictate terms. That’s why I am glad, if not overtly proud, that the three big teams sponsored by Swazi Mobile stood their ground on the matter of having their technical sponsor’s logo on the front space of their kits. This is the trend world over. We have numerous examples of such instances. Liverpool, the current English premiership log leaders (albeit temporarily....hehehehe), are sponsored by Standard Chartered and play in a league sponsored by rival Barclay’s. It is not even an issue because the front space on the kit belongs to the team and they must get a full value for it.

My green flies on the wall tell me this issue could be soon be resolved for good. Bravo to the three teams, Swallows, Wanderers and Highlanders for standing their ground and fighting for their rights. As we take this professional route, we will have some speed humps – understandably so. Football in this country has been under-valued for far too long. It’s time to commercialise it on all fronts.

The sponsors too need to be educated on what is expected of them; where their product must not be devalued and where to draw the line so that this is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
This is not just a Corporate Social Responsibility, it is business. Football is business. As soon as we all realise that, like wings of a bird, we need each other, the better. As Bra Hugh would sing in his gravel, weekend-was-hard voice, THUMA MINA, I wanna to be there when Swazi football finally earns the value it so richly deserves!
I wanna lend a hand, send me ...